New Horror Releases: The Neon Dead (2016) - Reviewed

Wild Eye Releasing’s newest movie is The Neon Dead, available on DVD and Digital HD in September. It’s a
hard one to really peg down, as the marketing is clearly trying to take
advantage of Nicholas Winding Refn’s The
Neon Demon and the colors that are often associated with Italian horror and
giallos from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Essentially it’s a horror-comedy that could
be described as a weird hybrid of The
Ghostbusters, Clerks, Evil Dead, Suspiria, Planet of the Vampires, and a Goosebumps episode.

The story involves a
woman who inherits a family home that is inhabited by a host of paranormal
monsters and their demon leader. She calls upon a pair of paranormal
exterminators to handle the problem, who supplement their income by working at a grocery
store.

While I’m calling this a horror-comedy, it’s more comedy
than horror because the horror elements never get into a truly frightening
area. You could easily say this is geared towards kids, as most kids may not
even find the horror scary in it. The special effects range from being very bad
Halloween store props, to some nicely done makeup work. Most of it is things
that you would expect to see at a haunted house. The makeup of the voodoo
characters and the main bad guy look interesting when combined with the
lighting that is used. There is also some stop motion animation. All of this
you may find to be lovingly camp and a tribute to 1950’s drive-in cinema or
shockingly bad. It really is going to depend on your personal tastes.

The comparison to Clerks
and Evil Dead has to do with the
paranormal team, which resemble the duo of Dante and Randall from Clerks. They work in a grocery store and
kind of have that same dynamic, with one being a wisecracking jerk that just
happens to work in the video rental department. This character shares similar
qualities to Ash from Evil Dead,
playing the bumbling jackass hero that gets tossed around and beaten up but
still manages to save the day. The actors that play this duo are decent, but
the picture probably could have been better off with a pair that had better
range and comedic timing. The lead actress Marie Barker shines in her
performance, she is very attractive and delivered on displaying fear and then
being powerful at times. She exhibited what you would expect from a typical
“final girl” in the horror genre and hopefully we will be seeing more of her
soon.

The thing that makes this movie stand out is the stunning
cinematography and wonderful use of shadows and bright colors, which are
reminiscent of some of the work of Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and some of the
other classic Italian horror and giallo films. The director and cinematographer
consistently deliver throughout this one; there is always a great mixture of light
on one side of the actor and shadows on the other, or hues of red on one side
and green on the other.

Despite the superb colors and a look that harkens back to
some cinematic greats, this ends up suffering from a weak script that lacks a
true comedic punch. It’s meant to be more comedy than horror and ends up
somewhat failing on the comedic end. Missing are those great one liners and
hilarious moments that make some of the other films previously listed so
memorable.